]]>CALGARY – Alberta Premier Jim Prentice reaffirmed Tuesday that his government will stay the course in an effort to right its financial ship and maintain the province’s strong credit rating.

“The truth is that the cracks in Alberta’s fiscal foundations run deeper than is generally acknowledged,” Prentice said in a speech to the Calgary Rotary Club.

“Yes, we have a revenue problem, but we also have a spending problem. It has been overlooked for too long.”

Prentice has not revealed a specific date to deliver the next budget, which he has said will also include a 10-year plan to insulate the government’s revenues and day-to-day spending against wild swings in oil prices.

He is forecasting a $7-billion hole in the coming fiscal year, given that oil prices have been cut in half from a high of more than US$100 a barrel last summer.

In recent weeks, Prentice and members of his cabinet have floated several ideas to raise revenue and cut spending, but have only committed to not increasing corporate taxes or raising oil royalties.

At this point, despite dire predictions about Alberta being plunged into a recession, Prentice believes the province’s pristine credit rating is safe.

“I’m not worried about it in the sense that if we do what we are recommending, we will be fine. If we pursue another path which involves doing nothing, running up $7-billion deficits … this province will lose its triple-A credit rating very quickly,” he said.

“Bank analysts have told me that and I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.

“Nobody should be under any doubt that we’ve gone from the highest growth rate in Canada to somewhere near the bottom, so it’s going to be a tougher year for all of us.”

Prentice said Monday he is also looking to overhaul how the province bargains with public-sector workers and to review legislation that prevents civil servants from striking.

A working group is to come up with a collective bargaining approach that avoids lucrative, one-off settlements based on immediate pressures.

And a recent Supreme Court decision affirming the right to strike means Alberta needs to review a ban on public-sector walkouts that dates back to the Peter Lougheed era, he said.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/premier-prentice-says-alberta-credit-rating-safe-if-province-stays-the-course/feed/0Airlines are rejecting giant shipments of lithium-ion batteries; not an issue for othershttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/airlines-are-rejecting-giant-shipments-of-lithium-ion-batteries-not-an-issue-for-others/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/airlines-are-rejecting-giant-shipments-of-lithium-ion-batteries-not-an-issue-for-others/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:58:09 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/airlines-are-rejecting-giant-shipments-of-lithium-ion-batteries-not-an-issue-for-others/NEW YORK, N.Y. – News on Tuesday that major U.S. airlines are no longer going to ship powerful lithium-ion batteries might lead some to fret about the safety of their…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – News on Tuesday that major U.S. airlines are no longer going to ship powerful lithium-ion batteries might lead some to fret about the safety of their personal electronic devices.

Those people can relax.

A kitchen grease fire or drunk driver is more likely to harm you than the battery powering your laptop, iPhone or Kindle.

The concern for airlines is that many of these batteries — more than you would ever have in your home — are tightly packed together when shipped. How many? More than 5,000 in a single container. If there were to be a fire, the fear is that it would quickly spread in a chain reaction and could incapacitate a plane faster than the pilots could safely land it.

That packing density is an issue for trucks and trains as well, but they aren’t 35,000 feet up in the sky. Also, both of those modes of transport ship much more dangerous items: gasoline, tanks of oxygen and hydrogen, hazardous chemicals like sulfuric acid and even nuclear waste.

For instance, U.S. railroads moved 28.7 million carloads and intermodal units of consumer and industrial products last year, according to the industry’s trade group, the Association of American Railroads. Looking back through federal safety data, the group says there has not been a single accident caused by lithium batteries in the past 25 years.

“If there is a situation with a container, our train crews can bring the train to a safe and controlled stop and quickly deal with the situation before it escalates,” notes spokesman Ed Greenberg.

After all, it’s much easier to stop a train than a plane.

Shipping giant UPS notes there are set standards for how to package lithium-ion batteries. Employees are trained in how to deal with any potentially hazardous materials.

So, what about that home laptop?

“While there have been notable instances in the past when rechargeable lithium batteries used in consumer electronics have overheated and caught fire, changes to battery design, chemistry and protective equipment built into battery packs appear to have greatly reduced the risk of ‘thermal runaway,’” says Dan Hearsch, a director at global consulting firm AlixPartners.

He concludes that the risk of a lone battery in your personal electronic device causing a problem is “most likely small.”

BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB). Wireless communications. Down 18 cents, or 1.30 per cent, to $13.69 on 3.8 million shares. The company unveiled its latest smartphone at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, offering a look at the first of four new smartphones it plans to release this year. Chief executive John Chen said the BlackBerry Leap will cater to the “low-to-mid” range phone market, and will go on sale in Europe in April.

Companies reporting major news:

Scotiabank (TSX:BNS). Bank. Down $1.15, or 1.72 per cent, to $65.78 on 2.4 million shares. Scotiabank, the last of the big five Canadian banks to report first-quarter results, said net earnings were $1.73 billion, up from $1.71 billion in the comparable year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings were $1.36 per share, two cents lower than analysts predicted. Chief executive Brian Porter said it is looking to grow its operations in Mexico, a region that’s expected to benefit from the U.S. economic recovery.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/most-actively-traded-companies-on-the-tsx-142/feed/0Ottawa advised to share resource taxes with aboriginalshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ottawa-advised-to-share-resource-taxes-with-aboriginals/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ottawa-advised-to-share-resource-taxes-with-aboriginals/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:49:40 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ottawa-advised-to-share-resource-taxes-with-aboriginals/EDMONTON – First Nations should get some of the money generated by resources on their lands, suggests a report commissioned by the federal government and the Assembly of First Nations.…

]]>EDMONTON – First Nations should get some of the money generated by resources on their lands, suggests a report commissioned by the federal government and the Assembly of First Nations.

The study, released Tuesday by the Working Group on Natural Resource Development, suggests a First Nations resource tax could be a consistent and practical way for mineral and energy wealth to benefit aboriginal communities.

“We strongly urge the federal government, along with the provinces and territories, to come together with First Nations to explore options for resource revenue sharing,” says the study. “This discussion is long overdue and requires immediate action in order to bring greater predictability to resource development in Canada and establish a long-term pathway to greater First Nations self-reliance.”

The group was struck following a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Assembly of First Nations grand chief Shawn Atleo. Its report was issued after meetings in Toronto and Edmonton between First Nations, governments, industry and non-governmental organizations.

The report also suggests that aboriginals deserve a role in designing and planning resource development that takes place on their lands, instead of simply being asked to comment on plans that have already been finalized.

“We are notified at the 11th hour,” said Cameron Alexis, a co-chairman of the group and regional AFN chief for Alberta.

“The green light for the project has been given and we’ve become just a check mark. We need to be involved at the very beginning.”

The document also advocates international outreach for Canadian aboriginal groups to better educate multinational corporations on how to do business on First Nations lands.

Alexis said such measures are needed if aboriginal people are to fully participate in the $675 billion of possible resource investment that the federal government says could be headed to Canada over the next decade.

“First Nations, for the most part, want to be engaged in decision-making and the economics of it,” he said.

Resource revenue sharing could give First Nations access to the capital they need to become partners in resource development, said Alexis.

“It gives First Nations a chance to pool their money and invest in each other.”

He said some industry groups are already in favour of involving area bands in the design of their projects.

“Some industry groups are in support of it and are actually doing those best practices. Others are not — that’s the problem with the interpretation of consultation.”

A spokeswoman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt didn’t respond to a specific question on whether the government would consider sharing resource royalties with aboriginal governments.

“We are currently reviewing the working group’s report,” said Emily Hillstrom in an email. “In the meantime, we will continue taking practical steps to build partnerships with aboriginal communities — for example, through the creation of the Major Projects Management Office-West.”

Hillstrom said that office is talking with aboriginal communities about how they could “play a role” in marine and pipeline safety systems.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ottawa-advised-to-share-resource-taxes-with-aboriginals/feed/0Waze map app to get Amber Alerts on child abductions, but only when driver is stoppedhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/waze-map-app-to-get-amber-alerts-on-child-abductions-but-only-when-driver-is-stopped/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/waze-map-app-to-get-amber-alerts-on-child-abductions-but-only-when-driver-is-stopped/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:38:16 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/waze-map-app-to-get-amber-alerts-on-child-abductions-but-only-when-driver-is-stopped/NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Waze navigation app is getting Amber Alerts on child abductions.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is sending the alerts. They will pop…

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is sending the alerts. They will pop up in the Waze app and be targeted to the driver’s location. To guard against distracted driving, the alerts will appear only when the driver has stopped for at least 10 seconds.

Many cellphones already get Amber Alerts as text-like messages, but some users have turned those off. Google Inc., which owns Waze, already displays Amber Alerts with its Google Maps app and search services. The missing-children centre also distributes alerts through services including Facebook.

The missing-children centre says it would rather have people get duplicate alerts than none. The program has been credited with rescuing more than 700 abducted children in the U.S.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/waze-map-app-to-get-amber-alerts-on-child-abductions-but-only-when-driver-is-stopped/feed/0How the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes fared on Tuesdayhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/how-the-dow-jones-industrial-average-and-other-major-indexes-fared-on-tuesday-20/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/how-the-dow-jones-industrial-average-and-other-major-indexes-fared-on-tuesday-20/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:33:45 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/how-the-dow-jones-industrial-average-and-other-major-indexes-fared-on-tuesday-20/U.S. stock indexes closed lower Tuesday, pulling the Nasdaq composite index back below 5,000. The decline came a day after the Nasdaq closed above that milestone for the first time…

]]>U.S. stock indexes closed lower Tuesday, pulling the Nasdaq composite index back below 5,000. The decline came a day after the Nasdaq closed above that milestone for the first time since the dot-com era 15 years ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 85.26 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 18,203.37.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 9.61 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 2,107.78.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/how-the-dow-jones-industrial-average-and-other-major-indexes-fared-on-tuesday-20/feed/0Target plans $2 billion in cost-cutting moves over next 2 yearshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/target-plans-2-billion-in-cost-cutting-moves-over-next-2-years/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/target-plans-2-billion-in-cost-cutting-moves-over-next-2-years/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:15:33 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/target-plans-2-billion-in-cost-cutting-moves-over-next-2-years/NEW YORK, N.Y. – Target Corp. plans $2 billion in cost cuts over the next two years through corporate restructuring and other improvements.
The goal: to make the Minneapolis-based discounter…

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/target-plans-2-billion-in-cost-cutting-moves-over-next-2-years/feed/0US indexes close modestly lower a day after Nasdaq passed 5,000 for first time in 15 yearshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-indexes-close-modestly-lower-a-day-after-nasdaq-passed-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-indexes-close-modestly-lower-a-day-after-nasdaq-passed-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:11:12 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-indexes-close-modestly-lower-a-day-after-nasdaq-passed-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/NEW YORK, N.Y. – U.S. stock indexes are closing slightly lower, pulling the Nasdaq composite index back below 5,000.
The decline Tuesday came a day after the Nasdaq closed above…

]]>TORONTO – Canadian auto buyers were undeterred by the cold weather felt in many provinces last month, helping auto makers mark the best February sales since 2008.

DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says Canadians snapped up 109,248 vehicles in February, up by 3.4 per cent from 105,865 in February 2014.

Trucks continued to grab more market share, with sales up more than five per cent to 68,049, while sales of passenger cars inched up 0.2 per cent to 41,199.

DesRosiers says light trucks now make up a record-high 63.3 per cent of the Canadian auto market, based on year-to-date sales figures.

General Motors of Canada Limited sold 13,806 vehicles in February, an increase of more than six per cent from the previous year.

Ford Canada saw its sales slip 7.4 per cent to 15,021, while FCA Canada Inc. saw a one per cent gain to 18,711.

“Given the coldest February on record for both Quebec and Ontario, the collapse in crude prices, and a declining Canadian dollar, it is a definite positive that Canadian consumers haven’t been steered away from the new vehicle market,” analyst Dennis DesRosiers said in a statement.

Toyota’s sales advanced nearly 20 per cent from a year ago to 11,864, while Honda’s sales slipped eight per cent to 7,200.

Scotiabank analyst Carlos Gomes noted that pickup trucks fared particularly well, with sales advancing 13 per cent year-over-year, led by a 44 per cent increase at General Motors.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/auto-sales-climbed-3-4-per-cent-in-february-despite-cold-weather-analysts/feed/0Though not there, Apple gets attention during wireless show; BlackBerry unveils new phonehttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/though-not-there-apple-gets-attention-during-wireless-show-blackberry-unveils-new-phone/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/though-not-there-apple-gets-attention-during-wireless-show-blackberry-unveils-new-phone/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:52:14 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/though-not-there-apple-gets-attention-during-wireless-show-blackberry-unveils-new-phone/NEW YORK, N.Y. – As a major wireless show continues this week in Barcelona, Spain, Apple is highlighting the capabilities of its iPhone cameras with a gallery of photos taken…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – As a major wireless show continues this week in Barcelona, Spain, Apple is highlighting the capabilities of its iPhone cameras with a gallery of photos taken by its users around the world.

Apple’s campaign comes as Samsung unveiled new phones with improved photo-taking capabilities. The two companies have been fierce rivals, and one research firm said Tuesday that Apple bested Samsung as the world’s top smartphone maker in the last three months of 2014.

Apple Inc. isn’t at the Mobile World Congress show this week, but is making its presence felt, as new phones are inevitably compared with iPhones. Apple has its own event Monday in San Francisco, where it’s expected to reveal more details about its upcoming smartwatch.

Here’s a look at some of the developments at and beyond Mobile World Congress, which runs through Thursday:

___

APPLE’S REMOTE PRESENCE:

Apple is turning over a large portion of its home page, along with billboard and print ads in dozens of cities, to photos from its “Shot on iPhone 6″ campaign. The company collected photos from 77 users around the world by combing through Flickr, Instagram and other sites (and getting permissions from the photographers). Apple is featuring 57 photos and three videos from those users at http://apple.com/worldgallery . The rest are on print ads.

Apple is seeking to show that people can take quality images with iPhones, without needing to buy and carry a stand-alone camera. The photo captions describe what makes each image stand out and present tips and information on any apps and accessories used.

The campaign launched Sunday just as Samsung Electronics Co. announced its new Galaxy S6 phones, which promise improved focus, low-light capabilities and colour adjustments to account for ambient light.

___

THE ORIGINAL:

Before iPhones came around, there was the BlackBerry. But iPhones — and later, Android phones — showed people that smartphones can do much more than email and calls. BlackBerry was late in modernizing its operating system to offer those capabilities.

At the show Tuesday, BlackBerry CEO John Chen reiterated the company’s “philosophical” shift away from merely making devices to becoming a leader in software, especially for businesses and even rivals such as Samsung.

Nonetheless, BlackBerry said it may launch four new smartphones over the coming year, including the BlackBerry Leap, a “low-to-mid” market phone that will go on sale in Europe in April. Although the Leap has a touch-screen keyboard, BlackBerry’s head of devices, Ron Louks, told The Associated Press that BlackBerry remains committed to making models with its signature physical keyboards.

___

DEFENDING REGULATION:

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is taking the defence of new Internet regulations on the road. During a keynote, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said “there needs to be a referee” for the Internet.

The FCC’s vote last week approved “net neutrality” rules that prevent Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from slowing or blocking Web traffic or from creating Internet fast lanes that content providers such as Netflix must pay for. Broadband providers and Republicans have been critical of the new rules, and the FCC’s decision is expected to trigger industry lawsuits that could take years to resolve.

Wheeler did not specifically address the political aspect of the decision, but said “the people against it spawned all kinds of imaginary horribles. This is no more regulating the Internet than the First Amendment regulates free speech in our country.”

___

Associated Press writers Joseph Wilson in Barcelona and Tali Arbel in New York contributed to this story.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/mbta-considering-options-to-compensate-riders-who-have-struggled-through-weeks-of-snow-delays/feed/0How should businesses decide when they’ve sold too much?http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blogs-and-comment/how-much-is-too-much-to-sell/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blogs-and-comment/how-much-is-too-much-to-sell/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:44:08 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/?p=800883Plenty of products are fine in moderation and harmful in excess. So where to draw the line?

Business is about sales. From a business point of view, your mission is to make a product that people want, and to sell a lot of it. The drive to sell a lot is what motivates cleverness in product design, efficiency in production, and consumer-friendly low prices.

Sure, the idea of selling more-more-more has its critics. There’s a strain of anti-consumerism that sees the drive to sell (and hence buy) more as the root of all evil. And certainly in some product categories, maximizing the selling-and-buying cycle can have pretty bad environmental effects.

But in general, it’s hard to tell a businessperson, with a straight face, that they’re ethically obligated not to sell so much stuff. After all, that’s their function.

There are, however, exceptions, cases in which selling more is so obviously socially destructive that it becomes morally mandatory to try to maybe sell a little less.

See, for example, this must-read piece by Mike Mariani in the Pacific Standard, called “Poison Pill: How the American opiate epidemic was started by one pharmaceutical company.” It’s the story of how Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid analgesic Oxycontin, used innovative marketing strategies to turn the painkiller into a $100-million commercial success, and how the drug not coincidentally became the darling of millions of addicts. Part of that story is about unethical (and illegal) marketing methods. But the question of methods can’t be separated entirely from the question of goals. And the goal, here, is sales—in particular, maximizing sales. But when you maximize sales of a drug like Oxy, you inevitably encourage a greater amount of “leakage” of the drug from the stream of legitimate uses into the realm of addiction and criminality.

This is clearly an extreme case. Oxycontin is a potent narcotic, subject to strict legal controls for good reasons. Taken incorrectly, it can ruin your life or even kill you, and for that reason distribution channels are limited. But it’s worth noting that this is not a bad product. Used properly, it’s a godsend.

But oxy is far from the only product that is good when used properly, but dangerous when used incorrectly. Consider the Big Mac. Or 7-Eleven’s Big Gulp. Or Coca Cola. Each of those is harmless when consumed the way any reasonable person would consume them—i.e., relatively seldom. A single Coke (or even a Big Gulp-sized Coke), just isn’t going to hurt you. So, it would seem no one is doing anything wrong by selling you one. Or even two. Or even several.

Now, when consumed in excess, both Coke and Big Macs can have, shall we say, a negative impact on your health. But it’s hard to imagine telling the cashier earning minimum-wage at McDonald’s or 7-Eleven that they’re obligated to cut customers off after they’ve had “one too many.” And besides, with regards to grownups, at least, consumers are allowed to make their own mistakes, even at the risk of significant personal injury. That’s the price of freedom.

But there’s also the question of social impact. Coke and Big Macs aren’t just having an impact on individuals; they (along with lots of other high-sugar fast foods and snack foods) are implicated in the obesity epidemics currently plaguing so many industrialized countries. From a social point of view, selling more isn’t better. And from the perspective of net sales, it’s slightly more plausible to think that a company might contemplate exercising some restraint.

Of course, it’s all too easy to think that such companies should sell less. But it’s much harder to specify how much less, and how they should do it. Indeed, it’s hard even to enunciate what the relevant moral principle would look like. Go ahead and sell, sell, sell, but only up to…what point, exactly?

I don’t have a solution to suggest here. My point is just that the tragic story of oxycontin is merely a grotesquely extreme example of a larger problem: namely how to do business responsibly when selling a product that is at once both good and evil.

]]>DETROIT – The U.S. government’s highway safety agency has closed an investigation into reports of Michelin truck tire failures without seeking a recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the 2014 model of Michelin’s 22.5-inch diameter XZA tires in October after getting six complaints and a police report about seven crashes involving the tires.

But in documents posted Tuesday, the agency says the failures were not the fault of the tires. They were caused by a road hazard, owners using the tires on the wrong-size rim, or a combination of violating tire load limits, letting the air pressure get too low or travelling at a higher-than-rated speed.

The investigation covering more than 32,000 tires found 16 complaints, three crashes and two police crash reports.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/safety-agency-closes-michelin-truck-tire-investigation-without-seeking-a-recall/feed/0White House promises veto as Senate GOP tries to repeal new NLRB rule speeding union electionshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/white-house-promises-veto-as-senate-gop-tries-to-repeal-new-nlrb-rule-speeding-union-elections/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/white-house-promises-veto-as-senate-gop-tries-to-repeal-new-nlrb-rule-speeding-union-elections/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 20:02:41 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/white-house-promises-veto-as-senate-gop-tries-to-repeal-new-nlrb-rule-speeding-union-elections/WASHINGTON – Republicans controlling the Senate moved Tuesday to try to reverse a new National Labor Relations Board rule that would shorten the time between a union’s request for representation…

]]>WASHINGTON – Republicans controlling the Senate moved Tuesday to try to reverse a new National Labor Relations Board rule that would shorten the time between a union’s request for representation and the vote on whether to certify a union.

But the White House promised to veto the measure just before the Senate’s 53-45 party-line vote.

Senate Republicans are employing a little-used process that allows Congress to pass a bill to try to reverse agency regulations without the threat of a Democratic filibuster. A final vote is likely on Wednesday.

But the promised veto by President Barack Obama would kill the effort since it takes a two-thirds vote by both the House and Senate to override him.

The White House statement said the NLRB’s “modest reforms will help simplify and streamline private sector union elections, thereby reducing delays before workers can have a free and fair vote on whether or not to form or join a union.”

Republicans countered that the new policy would allow unions to force “ambush elections” that limit the ability of employers to make the case against a union. Bill sponsor Lamar Alexander said the rule would shorten the time between a union petition and a representation election from the current median of 38 days to as few as 11 days.

The new rule would also give unions the email addresses and telephone numbers of workers to more easily communicate with them in advance of a vote.

“It forces a union election before an employer has the time to figure out what’s going on,” Alexander said. Even worse, it jeopardizes employees’ privacy by requiring employers to turn over employees’ personal information, including email addresses, phone numbers, shift hours and locations to union organizers.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., countered that “too often, big corporations take advantage of loopholes in the current election process to delay a vote on union representation. Unnecessary litigation and excessive delays threaten the rights of workers who want to have a free and fair election.”

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/white-house-promises-veto-as-senate-gop-tries-to-repeal-new-nlrb-rule-speeding-union-elections/feed/0Drop in Russian car sales this year to hurt Ford and GM’s plan to return to profits in Europehttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/drop-in-russian-car-sales-this-year-to-hurt-ford-and-gms-plan-to-return-to-profits-in-europe/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/drop-in-russian-car-sales-this-year-to-hurt-ford-and-gms-plan-to-return-to-profits-in-europe/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:32:35 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/drop-in-russian-car-sales-this-year-to-hurt-ford-and-gms-plan-to-return-to-profits-in-europe/GENEVA – Russia’s sinking economy is putting up a major hurdle for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors as the U.S. automakers fight to return to profitability in Europe after…

]]>GENEVA – Russia’s sinking economy is putting up a major hurdle for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors as the U.S. automakers fight to return to profitability in Europe after years of losses.

Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO of GM’s Adam Opel GmbH subsidiary, said at the Geneva International Motor Show that the Russian market “is basically collapsing.” He said sales there could fall this year to as low as 1.5 million. Last year, they were 2.5 million.

Neumann said Russia’s downturn was “working in the wrong way” but that the company wasn’t giving up on its goal of returning to profit in Europe in 2016. He said it would work to make earnings in other regions make up for diminished prospects in Russia.

“I am a marathon runner, and you don’t give up the race in the middle of the race just because it is raining or your feet hurt,” Neumann told reporters at the show.

Ford of Europe head Jim Farley told reporters that Ford “made a lot of progress” in cutting losses in Europe through reducing factory capacity and strengthening the company’s brand with new models.

“We see 2015 as a year of financial progress,” he said, without putting a date on returning to profit. Ford lost $1.1 billion in Europe on an operating basis for all of last year, though it did make money there in the second quarter.

Russia’s economy appears headed for recession after a plunge in the ruble’s value. Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union over Russia’s conflict with Ukraine have weighed on the economy.

The fall in the ruble makes any imported components much more expensive in local terms, adding to the woes caused by the general slowdown in demand. Both Neumann and Farley said that their companies had reduced shifts at the Russian plants. Neumann said that Opel had had to raise prices “40 per cent, which is ridiculous, but necessary.” Farley said Ford had also raised prices but was less specific.

Norbert Reithofer, the head of luxury carmaker BMW AG, said that his company’s sales in Russia fell 17 per cent last year. Carmakers at the show said much of the drop in sales came in the last three months of the year.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/drop-in-russian-car-sales-this-year-to-hurt-ford-and-gms-plan-to-return-to-profits-in-europe/feed/0Sun Life Financial and BCE partner up in employee pension agreementhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/sun-life-financial-and-bce-partner-up-in-employee-pension-agreement/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/sun-life-financial-and-bce-partner-up-in-employee-pension-agreement/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:08:32 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/sun-life-financial-and-bce-partner-up-in-employee-pension-agreement/TORONTO – Sun Life Financial (TSX:SLF) has signed a deal with BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) to help offset the risk to the telecommunication company’s pension plan if retirees live longer than…

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/sun-life-financial-and-bce-partner-up-in-employee-pension-agreement/feed/0Reports of B.C. LNG’s demise greatly exaggerated, industry alliance boss sayshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/reports-of-b-c-lngs-demise-greatly-exaggerated-industry-alliance-boss-says/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/reports-of-b-c-lngs-demise-greatly-exaggerated-industry-alliance-boss-says/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:51:21 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/reports-of-b-c-lngs-demise-greatly-exaggerated-industry-alliance-boss-says/CALGARY – The head of the B.C. LNG Alliance says it’s not a matter of if, but when, the province becomes a major global LNG player and he wouldn’t be…

]]>CALGARY – The head of the B.C. LNG Alliance says it’s not a matter of if, but when, the province becomes a major global LNG player and he wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one project get the green light this year.

David Keane took on the industry’s naysayers at a Calgary energy conference on Tuesday.

“To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of B.C. LNG’s death have been greatly exaggerated,” he said. “To the contrary, we are not alarmed by the present volatility in the energy market.”

High construction costs and plunging crude have been weighing on the nascent sector, with some companies, such as Malaysia’s Petronas, putting off final investment decisions until they can make the economics of their multibillion-dollar projects work.

The B.C. LNG Alliance includes seven of the 19 LNG projects that are currently proposed for Canada’s West Coast, including ones led by Petronas and other heavyweights such as Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron.

No West Coast LNG project has been given the official go-ahead by its backers, stoking concern that Canada may lose competitive ground to projects in the U.S. and elsewhere that are further along in development. Cost estimates for some B.C. projects have run into the tens of billions of dollars.

Keane said he’s more focused on the long-term outlook, with global demand expected to outpace supply by between 100 and 120 million tonnes a year over the next decade or so.

And he notes B.C. has an edge over some of its competitors globally. For instance, its colder climate means it’s more efficient to operate the plants where natural gas, piped in from the province’s northeast, would be chilled into a liquid state.

While Keane commends the B.C. government’s recent moves to bolster the industry, he says more work needs to be done when it comes to its greenhouse gas regulations.

Specifically, Keane says industry players should have more options when it comes to purchasing carbon offsets.

“Right now, the requirement is that they be in British Columbia, which I think skews the market and I would like to see us have an opportunity to look throughout North America for carbon offsets,” he told reporters.

Keane also lauded federal tax breaks for the industry announced last month by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying the move eliminates one major hurdle.

High labour costs have been one big concern for LNG developers, but tumbling crude prices may help in that regard, Keane said. With activity in Alberta’s oilpatch slowing down and layoffs being announced, more construction workers have been freed up to work on the West Coast.

“There’s an awful lot of trained workers that will be, because of the downturn in the oil price… looking for work, and I think there may be an opportunity for the LNG facilities in British Columbia to be able to capture some of that labour,” said Keane.

“Clearly, the premier in British Columbia has been saying she’s going to put up advertising in the Fort McMurray airport to get people back to B.C.”

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/reports-of-b-c-lngs-demise-greatly-exaggerated-industry-alliance-boss-says/feed/0FCC head defends ‘net neutrality’ decision amid criticism from industry, politicianshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fcc-head-defends-net-neutrality-decision-amid-criticism-from-industry-politicians/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fcc-head-defends-net-neutrality-decision-amid-criticism-from-industry-politicians/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:41:19 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fcc-head-defends-net-neutrality-decision-amid-criticism-from-industry-politicians/NEW YORK, N.Y. – The head of the Federal Communications Commission is taking the defence of new Internet regulations on the road.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress wireless show…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – The head of the Federal Communications Commission is taking the defence of new Internet regulations on the road.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Tuesday that “there needs to be a referee” for the Internet.

The FCC’s vote last week approved “net neutrality” rules that prevent Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from slowing or blocking Web traffic or from creating Internet fast lanes that content providers such as Netflix must pay for.

Broadband providers and Republicans have been critical of the new rules, and the FCC’s decision is expected to trigger industry lawsuits that could take years to resolve.

Verizon has criticized the FCC for basing the new rules on a 1934 law. Wheeler said that the agency “modernized” the old communications legislation, leaving out parts that don’t apply to today’s Internet. He said that approach has worked well for wireless carriers.

The FCC approved the new rules by a 3-2 vote. One of the dissenting commissioners, Ajit Pai, said the new rules are unpredictable. That could make Internet providers less willing to come up with new services.

Wheeler said the rules are not intended to block innovation. He said that the agency did not want to impose broad, restrictive rules on the industry but would look at business practices on a case-by-case basis. He said that there will be no rate regulation and that the rules won’t hurt network operators’ revenue streams from consumer services.

AT&T has said the rules politicize the Internet. President Barack Obama and many Democrats approve the new regulatory approach. Although Republicans have said they support an open Internet, they want a different approach.

Wheeler did not specifically address the political aspect of the decision, but said “the people against it spawned all kinds of imaginary horribles. This is no more regulating the Internet than the First Amendment regulates free speech in our country.”

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fcc-head-defends-net-neutrality-decision-amid-criticism-from-industry-politicians/feed/0US stocks fall a day after Nasdaq passes 5,000 for first time in 15 years; energy stocks risehttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-falling-in-afternoon-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-falling-in-afternoon-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:11:07 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-falling-in-afternoon-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/NEW YORK, N.Y. – U.S. stocks fell from record highs on Tuesday and the Nasdaq dropped below 5,000 a day after passing that milestone for the first time since the…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – U.S. stocks fell from record highs on Tuesday and the Nasdaq dropped below 5,000 a day after passing that milestone for the first time since the dot-com era 15 years ago.

The losses were modest but broad, with eight industry sectors in the Standard and Poor’s 500 index falling. Higher oil prices helped oil drillers and other energy companies buck the trend. They eked out a 0.2 per cent rise for the day.

With no major economic news and few earnings reports, investors were at pains to point to a catalyst for the stock slump other than jitters that sometime follow big gains.

“It’s only natural we would get a little flutter after a milestone like yesterday,” said Wells Fargo Funds’ Chief Equity Strategist John Manley, referring to the Nasdaq closing above 5,000. “It may very well go on for a few days.”

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 85.26 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 18,203.37. The Standard & Poor’s 500 declined 9.61 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 2,107.78. The Nasdaq gave up 28.20 points, or 0.6 per cent, to close at 4,979.90.

Ford Motor slumped after reporting U.S. sales from last month that disappointed investors. Ford sales fell 1.9 per cent as dealers lacked the inventory to meet demand for the new F-150 pickup truck. Ford dropped 40 cents, or 2.4 per cent, to $16.17.

With nearly all companies in the S&P 500 having reported their fourth-quarter results, earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 index are expected to have risen a healthy 7.7 per cent, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Financial analysts expect earnings to drop compared with the year-earlier periods for the next two quarters, but that is mostly because of a drag from energy companies as oil prices have fallen more than 50 per cent since last June.

“We’re seeing a market that is fairly valued, earnings are behind us and no major catalysts are coming up,” she said. “It’s a market ready for a pause.”

The slump in the U.S. followed losses in European markets. France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each lost 1 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 per cent.

On Monday, the Nasdaq rose to just 40 points from its 5,048.62 peak reached March 10, 2000. The index has changed significantly since then. Gone is the heavy weighting of telecommunications stocks and big bets on Internet companies with little or no earnings.

Among other stocks in the news:

— Personal finance company Springleaf Holdings rose $12.19, or 32 per cent, to $50.23 after it said it would buy Citigroup’s OneMain Financial for $4.25 billion. OneMain provides personal loans at more than 1,100 branches across 43 states.

—Best Buy gained 55 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to $39.18 after the company said it would raise its dividend 21 per cent and give shareholders an additional one-time payment. The nation’s biggest electronics chain also reported fourth-quarter earnings that were higher than financial analysts had expected.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 93 cents to close at $50.52 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.48 to close at $61.02 a barrel in London.

In other futures trading on the NYMEX:

— Wholesale gasoline rose 5.3 cents to close at $1.950 a gallon.

— Heating oil rose 5.3 cents to close at $1.940 a gallon.

— Natural gas rose 1.4 cents to close at $2.712 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.12 per cent from 2.08 per cent on Monday.

In metals trading, gold fell $3.80 to $1,204.40 an ounce, silver fell two cents to $16.30 an ounce and copper lost four cents to close at $2.66 a pound.

]]>WASHINGTON – Bitterly admitting defeat, the Republican-controlled Congress sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without any of the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months.

“Sanity is prevailing,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, before the House voted 257-167 in favour of the $40 billion spending bill, which Obama was expected to sign promptly. All 182 Democrats present voted for the bill, while it received only 75 Republican “yes” votes.

The outcome averted a partial agency shutdown which would have begun Friday at midnight. It was a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a wholesale retreat for Republicans, who have spent months railing against an “unconstitutional overreach” by Obama in extending deportation stays and work permits to millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

In the end Republicans who’d tried to use the DHS spending bill to undo Obama’s actions had little to show but weeks of gridlock and chaotic spectacle on Capitol Hill in the wake of assuming full control of Congress in the November midterm elections. The turmoil brought the Homeland Security Department to within hours of a partial shutdown last Friday before Congress passed a one-week extension, and raised questions about Republicans’ ability to govern responsibly.

On Tuesday morning, addressing an uncharacteristically subdued gathering of House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner indicated he was out of options.

“I am as outraged and frustrated as you at the lawless and unconstitutional actions of this president,” Boehner told his caucus. “I believe this decision — considering where we are — is the right one for this team, and the right one for this country.”

“Our Republican colleagues in the Senate never found a way to win this fight,” he said, noting that the matter is now in the courts. A federal judge last month put Obama’s directives on hold, a ruling the White House is appealing.

Conservative lawmakers who humiliated Boehner last week by voting down a three-week spending bill he proposed did not speak up in the private meeting to dissent or ask questions, people present said.

Afterward, they said they were disappointed but had no more moves to make.

“I don’t know that there is one,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. “This is the signal of capitulation.”

The measure passed Tuesday funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. It pays for numerous priorities including Transportation Security agents, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, a host of immigration-related functions and grants to local governments.

There have been suggestions that Boehner would face an insurrection by tea party-backed conservatives if he brought a “clean” DHS bill to the floor. But Boehner’s opponents seemed resigned, and there was little sign of a brewing coup.

Indeed, several Republicans said Tuesday that the outcome was inevitable. Many had campaigned for re-election last fall on promises to stop Obama on immigration, and cheered when Boehner promised to fight the president’s moves “tooth and nail.” Yet several acknowledged they never had a viable plan to do so, given Obama’s veto pen and Senate Democrats’ opposition.

The GOP strategy was especially risky given the Homeland Security Department’s anti-terrorism responsibilities, which gave Democrats an opening to accuse Republicans of putting national security at risk.

“We all knew how this was going to end,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. “If somebody wants to make an argument against those of us who are doing our duty and governing responsibly, they can feel free to have the argument. We are prepared to defend ourselves and I believe the Speaker will come out of this just fine.”

The drama unfolded as a lesson in the limits of divided government.

The fight was set up last fall, when Boehner and GOP leaders convinced House conservatives to wait until this year to try to overturn Obama on immigration, when the GOP would command control of the Senate and bigger majorities in the House.

Congress passed a full-year spending bill for the rest of the government, but kept the Homeland Security Department on a short leash to use its spending bill as the vehicle to oppose Obama.

Republicans predicted that the handful of Senate Democrats who’d voiced concerns about Obama’s immigration actions would join them. But the DHS spending bill the House passed in January was yanked to the right by conservatives, undoing not only Obama’s most recent executive actions but an earlier directive, from 2012, that extended protections to immigrants brought illegally to the country as kids.

That helped unify Democrats against it, and Senate rules did the rest. Republicans command only 54 votes in the chamber, not the 60 needed to advance most legislation, and Senate Democrats blocked the House bill repeatedly.

In the end, the House contingent that opposed Boehner had little to do but bemoan what had become a foregone conclusion. As the drama neared its conclusion Tuesday they offered a few final procedural moves — forcing the reading clerk to read part of the bill out loud, and offering a motion to table — but they had no hope of prevailing.

“I believe this is a sad day for America,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., one of the hardliners. “If we’re not going to fight now, when are we going to fight?”

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/european-union-officials-break-up-major-cross-border-tax-fraud-ring-arrest-9-people/feed/0NDP accuses Ottawa of sitting on money earmarked for economic developmenthttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ndp-accuses-ottawa-of-sitting-on-money-earmarked-for-economic-development/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ndp-accuses-ottawa-of-sitting-on-money-earmarked-for-economic-development/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:26:35 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ndp-accuses-ottawa-of-sitting-on-money-earmarked-for-economic-development/MONTREAL – Three NDP MPs accused the Harper government on Tuesday of not spending tens of millions of dollars that are earmarked for economic development in outlying regions.
The government…

]]>MONTREAL – Three NDP MPs accused the Harper government on Tuesday of not spending tens of millions of dollars that are earmarked for economic development in outlying regions.

The government is withholding the funds to lower the federal deficit, they told a news conference.

They said $131.6 million — for Quebec alone — is sitting in the coffers of the Economic Development Agency of Canada when it could be used to support projects and create jobs.

The unused sums totalled $57.3 million in 2010-2011, $17.55 million in 2011-2012, $18.1 million in 2012-2013 and $38.6 million in 2013-2014, they added.

The Quebec-based MPs accused the Conservatives of hypocrisy, saying they make funding announcements while knowing full well that part of the money will remain in government coffers.

“They’re putting on shows of smoke and mirrors, announcing investments for the regions of Quebec, for the creation of jobs, for the social economy and, at the end of the day, the money is still lying around in Ottawa, while there’s a crying need for it — be it in Montreal or the regions,” said Alexandre Boulerice.

Francois Lapointe, the NDP’s economic development critic, rejected the argument that the Conservatives are practising sound economic management.

“We’re not asking for new money,” he said. ”We’re asking for money that’s already been approved by the public treasury to help and support small- and medium-sized businesses and the social economy everywhere in Quebec,” he said.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/ndp-accuses-ottawa-of-sitting-on-money-earmarked-for-economic-development/feed/0Troubled NBC News turning to its former chief for helphttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/troubled-nbc-news-turning-to-its-former-chief-for-help/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/troubled-nbc-news-turning-to-its-former-chief-for-help/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:24:22 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/troubled-nbc-news-turning-to-its-former-chief-for-help/NEW YORK, N.Y. – NBC Universal is in talks to bring back Andrew Lack to its troubled news operation, which would be the first high-level shake-up following several rough months…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – NBC Universal is in talks to bring back Andrew Lack to its troubled news operation, which would be the first high-level shake-up following several rough months culminating in the six-month suspension of “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams for misleading viewers about his experiences covering the Iraq War.

An executive at NBC Universal who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a personnel matter said that if an agreement was reached, Lack, a veteran executive who ran NBC’s news division from 1993 to 2001, would return in a lead role at the NBC News Group, which includes NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.

NBC Universal spokesman Mark Kornblau declined to comment on the negotiations, first reported in Variety on Tuesday. A spokesman at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which Lack currently runs, did not immediately return a call for comment.

It would mark Lack’s second time returning to NBC News at a time of trouble. After more than 15 years at CBS News as a top producer, he replaced Michael Gartner as NBC News chief following revelations the network had rigged a pickup truck to catch fire in a crash shown on “Dateline NBC.”

After serving as news chief at NBC, he became network president before leaving in 2003 to become chairman of Sony Music Entertainment. He left the music business for Bloomberg Media, spending six years there before becoming chief executive at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a federal agency, last year.

He would bring extensive news experience in the U.S. market to a leadership team that now lacks it. Pat Fili-Krushel, who now runs the NBC News Group, is a veteran TV executive with a background mostly in entertainment and NBC News President Deborah Turness came to the network from ITV News in Great Britain. Both are expected to remain with NBC Universal, although their future roles are unclear, the executive said.

The biggest issue Lack would immediately face is the future of Williams, currently the target of an internal investigation into other instances where he may have told untrue or exaggerated stories about his news experiences, often in entertainment settings. There are conflicting feelings, even within NBC News, about whether Williams would ever be able to return as the network’s top on-air personality. Lester Holt is filling in for Williams and has kept “Nightly News” atop the ratings, although its edge over second-place ABC’s “World News Tonight” has shrunk.

“Nightly News” and Williams had been the bright spot at NBC News, where the “Today” show hasn’t been able to cut into the ratings lead of ABC’s “Good Morning America” and saw the embarrassing saga of a new executive overseeing the show being let go after only a couple of months last fall. Turness engineered the replacement of David Gregory as “Meet the Press” host by Chuck Todd last year. NBC angered viewers last fall when medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman violated a self-imposed quarantine for potential Ebola exposure.

CNBC and MSNBC also present challenges, primarily due to declining ratings.

CNBC had some of its worst ratings since the late 1990s last year, and recently announced it had stopped relying on the Nielsen company, the industry standard for measuring viewership. CNBC has long contended Nielsen’s failure to measure workplace viewing underestimates its audience, but the network has also been challenged by the business world’s increased reliance on the Internet for fast-moving news.

The left-leaning news network MSNBC has also lost viewers, and is said to be re-evaluating the extent to which it emphasizes a political point of view or more straight news.

___

Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/troubled-nbc-news-turning-to-its-former-chief-for-help/feed/0US adds Fusion, Lincoln MKZ to probe of Ford door latches that may not close properlyhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-adds-fusion-lincoln-mkz-to-probe-of-ford-door-latches-that-may-not-close-properly/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-adds-fusion-lincoln-mkz-to-probe-of-ford-door-latches-that-may-not-close-properly/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:15:10 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-adds-fusion-lincoln-mkz-to-probe-of-ford-door-latches-that-may-not-close-properly/DETROIT – U.S. safety regulators are adding two models to an investigation of Ford Motor Co. door latches that may not close properly.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said…

]]>DETROIT – U.S. safety regulators are adding two models to an investigation of Ford Motor Co. door latches that may not close properly.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday it’s including the 2013 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ midsize cars to the probe of latches on 2011-2013 Ford Fiesta compact cars. The investigation now covers nearly 486,000 cars.

Ford and the agency have received 640 complaints about the latches. Some said the doors opened inadvertently while the cars were moving. Two injuries were reported. Ford also has received nearly 1,100 warranty claims.

The agency began investigating the Fiesta in September, and found out that the other two models have the same latches.

Investigators will analyze complaints and see how often the problem happens to determine if a recall is needed.

Ford said it is co-operating in the probe and that any customer who experiences a latch problem should contact a dealer.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-adds-fusion-lincoln-mkz-to-probe-of-ford-door-latches-that-may-not-close-properly/feed/0FDA seeks limits on popular testosterone-boosting drugs for aging menhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fda-seeks-limits-on-popular-testosterone-boosting-drugs-for-aging-men/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fda-seeks-limits-on-popular-testosterone-boosting-drugs-for-aging-men/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:12:31 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fda-seeks-limits-on-popular-testosterone-boosting-drugs-for-aging-men/WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors against the overuse of testosterone-boosting drugs for men, saying the popular treatments have never been established as safe or effective…

]]>WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors against the overuse of testosterone-boosting drugs for men, saying the popular treatments have never been established as safe or effective for treating common signs of aging like low libido and fatigue.

The agency says drugmakers must clarify that their drugs, currently taken by millions of U.S. men, are only approved to treat low testosterone levels caused by disease or injury, not general aging. Additionally, the FDA warned that the drugs may increase the risk of heart attack. Drugmakers must add information about that potential risk to their warning labels and conduct a long-term study to address the issue, the FDA said.

The federal rebuke follows years of industry marketing for new pills, patches, gels and injections that promise relief from low testosterone or “Low-T.” Promotions from AbbVie and Eli Lilly link the condition to a variety of ailments common in aging men, including sexual dysfunction and low mood.

The advertising blitz for drugs like AbbVie’s Androgel and Lilly’s Axiron has pushed sales of testosterone drugs to over $2 billion. Roughly 2.3 million U.S. patients received a prescription for testosterone in 2013, up 77 per cent from 2010, according to FDA figures.

Testosterone injections were first approved in the 1950s for men who had been diagnosed with hypogonadism, a form of abnormally low testosterone caused by disorders of the testicles, brain or other organs.

But current labeling on the drugs is vague enough that companies have been able to promote their drugs to millions of otherwise healthy men who simply have lower-than-normal levels of testosterone.

“The benefits and safety of this use have not been established,” the FDA said in a statement Tuesday.

Companies sell prescription testosterone in a variety of forms. The market leader, Androgel, is a gel applied to the shoulders and arms. Endo Pharmaceuticals sells a long-acting injectable testosterone called Aveed.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fda-seeks-limits-on-popular-testosterone-boosting-drugs-for-aging-men/feed/0Oil glut: US running out of room to store crude; prices for oil and gasoline could plungehttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/oil-glut-us-running-out-of-room-to-store-crude-prices-for-oil-and-gasoline-could-plunge/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/oil-glut-us-running-out-of-room-to-store-crude-prices-for-oil-and-gasoline-could-plunge/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:11:41 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/oil-glut-us-running-out-of-room-to-store-crude-prices-for-oil-and-gasoline-could-plunge/NEW YORK, N.Y. – The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months.

For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country’s main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported last week.

If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as “tank tops,” by mid-April and send the price of crude — and probably gasoline, too — plummeting.

“The fact of the matter is we are running out of storage capacity in the U.S.,” Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citibank, said at a recent symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Morse has suggested oil could fall all the way to $20 a barrel from the current $50. At that rock-bottom price, oil companies, faced with mounting losses, would stop pumping oil until the glut eased. Gasoline prices would fall along with crude, though lower refinery production, because of seasonal factors and unexpected outages, could prevent a sharp decline.

The national average price of gasoline is $2.44 a gallon. That’s $1.02 cheaper than last year at this time, but up 37 cents over the past month.

Other analysts agree that crude is poised to fall sharply — if not all the way to $20 — because it continues to flood into storage for a number of reasons:

— U.S. oil production continues to rise. Companies are cutting back on new drilling, but that won’t reduce supplies until later this year.

— The new oil being produced is light, sweet crude, which is a type many U.S. refineries are not designed to process. Oil companies can’t just get rid of it by sending it abroad, because crude exports are restricted by federal law.

— Foreign oil continues to flow into the U.S., both because of economic weakness in other countries and to feed refineries designed to process heavy, sour crude.

— This is the slowest time of year for gasoline demand, so refiners typically reduce or stop production to perform maintenance. As refiners process less crude, supplies build up.

— Oil investors are making money buying and storing oil because of the difference between the current price of oil and the price for delivery in far-off months. An investor can buy oil at $50 today and enter into a contract to sell it for $59 in December, locking in a profit even after paying for storage during those months.

The delivery point for most of the oil traded in the U.S. is Cushing, a city of about 8,000 people halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa at an intersection of several pipelines. The city is dotted with tanks that can, in theory, hold 85 million barrels of oil, according to the Energy Department, though some of those tanks are used for blending or feeding pipelines, not for storing oil.

The market data provider Genscape, which flies helicopters equipped with infrared cameras and other technology over Cushing twice a week to measure storage levels, estimates Cushing is two-thirds full.

Hillary Stevenson, who manages storage, pipeline and refinery monitoring for Genscape, says Cushing could be full by mid-April. Supplies are increasing at “the highest rate we have ever seen at Cushing,” she says.

Full tanks — or super-low prices — are not a sure thing. New storage is under construction at Cushing, and there are large storage terminals near Houston, in St. James, Louisiana, and elsewhere around the country that will probably begin to take in more oil as prices fall far enough to cover the cost of transporting the oil.

Also, drillers are cutting back fast because oil prices have plummeted from $107 a barrel in June. And demand is showing signs of rising.

While the Energy Department reported another enormous rise in crude stocks last week, up 8.4 million barrels from the week earlier, it also reported that diesel and gasoline supplies fell more than expected. That leads some to conclude that demand for crude will soon pick up, easing the surplus somewhat.

But many analysts believe oil prices will fall through the spring, before summer drivers start to relieve the glut.

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – Pfizer’s blockbuster vaccine against pneumonia and other bacterial infections has won another approval, for use in European Union residents aged 18 and older.

Prevnar 13, called Prevenar 13 in some countries, is the bestselling vaccine ever.

It protects against 13 strains of pneumococcal disease, the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia and a top cause of death and hospitalization worldwide. It also causes children’s ear infections, bloodstream infections and other illnesses.

New York-based Pfizer says more than 750 million doses have been distributed worldwide. Last year, Prevnar’s global sales reached $4.5 billion, making it the No. 2 product for the company, which also makes Lipitor and Viagra.

Prevnar 13 is approved in more than 120 countries. In the U.S., it’s approved for children from six weeks through 17 years old and adults over 49.

]]>TORONTO – Consumers are continuing to pile on debt despite economic uncertainty created by the sharp drop in oil prices.

Credit monitoring agency Equifax says consumer debt, including mortgage debt, rose to $1.529 trillion at the end of 2014.

That was up 7.7 per cent from $1.42 trillion at the end of 2013, including a 1.1 per cent increase in the latest quarter.

Compared with the same quarter last year, Equifax says national consumer demand for credit was driven mainly by credit cards. Bank and auto inquiries also increased.

Meanwhile, the average debt held by Canadians, excluding mortgages, totalled $20,967 at the end of last year, Equifax says.

Despite concerns about consumer debt, the 90-day-plus delinquency rate has remained the same or declined in most regions, coming in at 1.09 per cent nationally in the fourth quarter, the lowest since 2008.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/canadian-consumer-debt-including-mortgages-hits-1-53-trillion-equifax/feed/0Switzerland to automatically share bank data with Australia as part of crackdown on tax cheatshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/switzerland-to-automatically-share-bank-data-with-australia-as-part-of-crackdown-on-tax-cheats/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/switzerland-to-automatically-share-bank-data-with-australia-as-part-of-crackdown-on-tax-cheats/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:51:56 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/switzerland-to-automatically-share-bank-data-with-australia-as-part-of-crackdown-on-tax-cheats/BERLIN – Switzerland has signed an accord with Australia aimed at cracking down on tax evaders.
The joint declaration signed Tuesday in Canberra will see the countries automatically share tax…

]]>BERLIN – Switzerland has signed an accord with Australia aimed at cracking down on tax evaders.

The joint declaration signed Tuesday in Canberra will see the countries automatically share tax information on each other’s citizens by 2018.

Swiss Finance Ministry spokesman Mario Tuor said it’s the first time Switzerland has pledged such an automatic information exchange, though negotiations are underway with the United States and the European Union over similar accords.

Switzerland has shifted from its long-standing defence of financial secrecy following a series of data leaks and foreign court cases that exposed how Swiss banks helped foreign clients hide vast sums from tax their authorities.

Switzerland says Australia has put in place procedures for taxpayers to declare Swiss accounts, and is willing to discuss better market access for Swiss financial providers.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/switzerland-to-automatically-share-bank-data-with-australia-as-part-of-crackdown-on-tax-cheats/feed/0Business Roundtable: Trade would increase hiring of US workershttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/business-roundtable-trade-would-increase-hiring-of-us-workers/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/business-roundtable-trade-would-increase-hiring-of-us-workers/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:50:49 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/business-roundtable-trade-would-increase-hiring-of-us-workers/WASHINGTON – Top U.S. business executives are pressing Congress to give President Barack Obama greater authority to negotiate international trade deals, citing the potential for increased hiring in the United…

]]>WASHINGTON – Top U.S. business executives are pressing Congress to give President Barack Obama greater authority to negotiate international trade deals, citing the potential for increased hiring in the United States and greater competitiveness for their companies overseas.

In a report Tuesday by the lobbying group Business Roundtable, the chief executives say their expectations for the economy have improved but that business needs more confidence to increase hiring.

The group’s survey of 120 executives found that more than half of them — 54 per cent — said trade would allow them to boost their employment in the United States.

Forging a 12-nation trade deal with Pacific Rim countries is one of Obama’s top priorities this year. Most Republicans, who now control Congress, support broadening trade. But Obama faces resistance from a majority of Democrats who say such agreements put the United States at a disadvantage. Obama is asking for the power to negotiate deals that Congress can only approve or reject, but not amend.

The Business Roundtable can be an influential player in business and economic policy and its trade push could help counter arguments that trade deals send U.S. jobs overseas.

“When you think about those issues that are ripe for being dealt with in this Congress, to us it seems the most likely issue is trade,” said Business Roundtable Chairman Randall Stephenson, the chairman and chief executive of AT&T. “There seems to be broad bipartisan support for passing trade promotion authority for the president, the president himself is engaged and believes this is important as well.”

In a conference call with reporters, Stephenson said the group would lobby for Congress to grant Obama so-called “fast track” authority in the first half of this year. He cautioned that delaying until later in the year ran the risk of getting overtaken by 2016 election year politics.

Stephenson said in addition to giving Obama expanded authority to negotiate trade deals, Congress should also overhaul the business tax system, a much more challenging political task than trade.

He also called for spending on infrastructure projects and adopting regulations that encourage business investment, a common refrain among business leaders.

The survey also found that their six-month outlook for sales hit a three-year high during the first quarter of 2015. And while the executives are less bullish about economic growth this year than other forecasters, they still expect a better economic performance than they did in the fourth quarter of last year.

According to the survey, more CEOs are planning to step up their investment in machinery, plants and other equipment in the next six months. Forty-five per cent said they had such plans, up from 36 per cent three months ago.

Stephenson attributed that increase to a package of tax breaks passed by Congress late last year that provided clarity on the tax treatment of capital equipment spending.

Stronger hiring, lower gas prices and some incipient signs of higher wages are encouraging consumers to spend more, Stephenson said, brightening the chief executives’ sales outlook. Eighty per cent now expect higher sales in the next six months, up from 74 per cent in last year’s fourth quarter.

Despite the increased optimism, hiring plans were largely unchanged, with 40 per cent of CEOs expecting to add jobs in the next six months, the same as three months earlier. That follows steady gains in hiring intentions for the past three years.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/business-roundtable-trade-would-increase-hiring-of-us-workers/feed/0Prosecutor: Immigration agent accused of stealing from prisoner he was assigned to transporthttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/philly-da-immigration-agent-accused-of-stealing-from-prisoner-he-was-assigned-to-transport/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/philly-da-immigration-agent-accused-of-stealing-from-prisoner-he-was-assigned-to-transport/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:50:48 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/philly-da-immigration-agent-accused-of-stealing-from-prisoner-he-was-assigned-to-transport/PHILADELPHIA – Authorities in Philadelphia have charged a federal immigration agent accused of stealing from a prisoner he was assigned to transport, the city’s district attorney said Tuesday.
Immigration and…

]]>PHILADELPHIA – Authorities in Philadelphia have charged a federal immigration agent accused of stealing from a prisoner he was assigned to transport, the city’s district attorney said Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Justin Ford was arrested last week after he was caught in a sting allegedly taking $200 from an undercover Philadelphia police officer posing as a deportee, District Attorney Seth Williams said.

“What Mr. Ford did was deplorable. It wasn’t the first time he stole from deportees,” Williams said. “He will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

Williams said that after searching the undercover officer and finding $2,000, Ford took two $100 bills. Ford transported the undercover officer to York County Prison and turned over the money to an intake officer, who confirmed that $200 was missing, Williams said.

Ford was arrested in Philadelphia and allegedly acknowledged the theft, as well as thefts from other prisoners, according to authorities.

Investigators have information that makes them believe this was not his first time, Williams said.

“Others had claimed to be missing money after he transported them” the district attorney said.

Ford, 31, was charged with theft, unlawful taking and related offences. He’s due in court on March 27.

Bail was set at $25,000; it’s unclear whether Ford had an attorney who could offer comment.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/philly-da-immigration-agent-accused-of-stealing-from-prisoner-he-was-assigned-to-transport/feed/0US stocks slipping in midday trade a day after Nasdaq passes 5,000 for first time in 15 yearshttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-slipping-in-midday-trade-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-slipping-in-midday-trade-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:49:48 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/us-stocks-slipping-in-midday-trade-a-day-after-nasdaq-passes-5000-for-first-time-in-15-years/NEW YORK, N.Y. – U.S. stock indexes are moving lower in midday trading, pulling the Nasdaq composite index back below 5,000.
The decline Tuesday came a day after the Nasdaq…

]]>NEW YORK, N.Y. – The U.S. Department of Justice says JPMorgan Chase will pay $50 million to 25,000 homeowners for failing to properly review payment-change notices sent to homeowners who were in bankruptcy.

The Justice Department says JPMorgan Chase acknowledged it filed about 25,000 payment change notices that were sent to homeowners without a proper review. They were signed in the names of employees who no longer worked for the company or who hadn’t reviewed the filings to check their accuracy.

About 25,000 additional forms were signed by employees of another company who weren’t responsible for checking the accuracy of the filings.

The agency says the settlement will include cash, mortgage loan credits and loan forgiveness. The largest portion of the settlement, $22.4 million, will be made of up credits and second-lien forgiveness. It will go to about 400 homeowners who received inaccurate notices of payment increases during their bankruptcy cases.

The settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the vast majority of its payment change notices were properly reviewed and correct, but the process for filing the notices electronically was flawed. The company said it has changed its system so the electronic signatures on those forms are correct.

Izek Shomof has submitted a letter of interest to Revel AC, offering to buy the casino for $80 million. He is reviving the former Rialto Theater in South Pasadena, as well as the former Sears building in downtown Los Angeles.

A bankruptcy court judge is to rule Wednesday on a proposed sale of Revel to Florida developer Glenn Straub for $82 million.

Shomof’s offer was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was tucked away in a bankruptcy court filing made Monday night by business tenants of the former casino objecting to the proposed sale to Straub’s Polo North Country Club.

Shomof’s partner, Leo Pustilnikov, told the newspaper he supports letting business tenants at Revel continue to operate in a re-opened casino. The tenants’ opposition has been a key obstacle to two previous sale offers that fell through.

Revel did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, and Shomof could not be reached for comment.

Straub’s lawyer, Stuart Moskovitz, said it is hard to take the offer seriously, particularly given the intractable opposition of Revel’s sole utility supplier to any deal that doesn’t guarantee its bill get paid.

“He has filed nothing, has posted no bond, has not guaranteed he will buy it, and there is no reason to believe he can make a deal with (ACR Energy Partners) when no one else was able to,” he said.

Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build, closed in September after little more than two years of operation, during which it never turned a profit.

Wednesday’s hearing will mark the third time U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns will rule on whether to sell the casino.

A deal approved last fall fell apart when Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management scrapped its $110 million purchase when it could not reach a deal concerning debt from the power plant’s construction. Straub’s backup bid of $95.4 million died when he missed a Feb. 9 deadline to close on it, due to lingering uncertainty over the legal rights of the former business tenants, who want to continue to operate in a re-opened casino.

ACR Energy wants the judge to take the sale process out of Revel’s hands and appoint a trustee to liquidate the property.

]]>http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/los-angeles-developer-makes-11th-hour-offer-to-buy-revel-casino-hotel-in-atlantic-city/feed/0Family sues Oregon meat distributor for $5 million after cleaning worker dies in meat blenderhttp://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/family-sues-oregon-meat-distributor-for-5-million-after-cleaning-worker-dies-in-meat-blender/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/family-sues-oregon-meat-distributor-for-5-million-after-cleaning-worker-dies-in-meat-blender/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:15:15 +0000http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/family-sues-oregon-meat-distributor-for-5-million-after-cleaning-worker-dies-in-meat-blender/OREGON CITY, Ore. – The family of a cleaning worker who was killed when he fell into a running industrial meat blender at an Oregon plant is suing the meat…

]]>OREGON CITY, Ore. – The family of a cleaning worker who was killed when he fell into a running industrial meat blender at an Oregon plant is suing the meat distributor for $5 million.

The Oregonian reports (http://is.gd/dCMPuF ) that the lawsuit filed last week in Clackamas County Circuit Court accused Interstate Meat Distributors of failing to follow safety procedures.

The 41-year-old man, Hugo Avalos-Chanon of Portland, was working for a cleaning contractor in April 2013 when the machine turned on and he was pulled into the equipment legs first. There were no eyewitnesses, but fellow workers heard his screams.

The president of Interstate Meat Distributors, Darrin Hoy, has been asked by phone and email to comment on the lawsuit.

The company grinds and packages hamburger for commercial customers in Oregon and southwest Washington.

NHL Supplier:Sher-wood Athletics Group
Location: Sherbrooke, Que.Established: 1949Number of Sher-wood pucks used in a game: 25 to 30

When he was with the Colorado Avalanche, Paul Stastny reluctantly gave up his wooden Sher-wood stick in favour of a graphite model. He was one of the last NHLers to make the switch. That was five years ago. Today, Stastny plays for the St. Louis Blues. He still uses a Sher-wood, but is now an early adopter of the firm’s newest niche line of ultralight composite sticks.

Long known for its wood sticks (and official game pucks), Sher-wood has only a small share of the high-end composite market and knew it would make little sense to launch a me-too product in a category that Bauer and CCM dominate. Instead, says product manager Michael Soule, the company has created “challenger” sticks, each with a key point of differentiation: The carbon-fibre EK15 costs $199, has a low “kick point” (designed for faster wrist shots) and is the only stick under 400 grams. The newer T120 model, released last fall, is engineered for heavy slapshots like Stastny’s. While it is designed and manufactured in Asia, the stick’s testing and marketing is handled in Quebec.

About a dozen NHL players use the new Sher-woods, and Soule says the models have gained acceptance among Midget AAA and Junior players. “Our brand has been on an upswing because of these last two products,” he says. “We’ve got elite players we weren’t getting before.”

As for its NHL customers, Sher-wood makes whatever modifications they require. “It’s how they make their living,” says Soule. “These guys help build your brand, so you service them.”

]]>WASHINGTON – A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal courts can hear a dispute over Colorado’s Internet tax law. One justice suggested it was time to reconsider the ban on state collection of sales taxes from companies outside their borders.

The ruling is a win for business groups that want to challenge the state’s so-called “Amazon tax,” which requires extensive reporting by out-of-state retailers that don’t collect the state’s 2.9 per cent sales tax from Colorado customers.

Online retailers claim Colorado is violating protections for companies doing business in other states. A federal court agreed that the law violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

But a federal appeals court ruled that cases challenging state laws about tax collection can only be filed in state court.

The high court reversed, finding that retailers were not challenging the actual collection of taxes, only a law giving state officials information about people who owe taxes.

Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said the federal law barring state taxes from being challenged in federal court does not cover “notice and reporting requirements” that might improve Colorado’s ability to collect sales taxes from consumers. He said the lawsuit is also not seeking to restrain tax collection.

The court sent the case back to the appeals court, suggesting there may be other arguments for refusing to hear the case.

Thomas did not directly address the legality of Colorado’s law, but Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote separately to question the half-century-old Supreme Court case that bans states from collecting sales taxes on out-of-state purchases if a business — such as Amazon — does not have a physical presence in the state.

“There is a powerful case to be made that a retailer doing extensive business within a state has a sufficiently substantial nexus to justify imposing some minor tax-collection duty, even if that business is done through mail or Internet,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy noted the “startling revenue shortfall” in many states from losing millions of dollars in taxes on Internet sales and the “unfairness to local retailers and their customers who do pay taxes at the register.”

Customers are technically required to pay sales tax to the state annually, though few know that or do it. The Colorado law requires larger online retailers to tell customers that they owe sales tax on their purchases. They also have to send an annual list of purchases to customers who spent more than $500.

]]>DETROIT – U.S. safety regulators are investigating reports of steering problems that could affect up to 1,500 Pierce fire trucks nationwide.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the probe covers trucks made since the 2004 model year.

The agency says it received a complaint in January from a fire department that a driver had trouble steering a truck and never felt in control. Mechanics found problems in the ball joints, which connect wheels to the steering system. Also, the agency cited media reports of wheels falling off trucks three times the Baltimore area. No injuries were reported.

In November the company recalled 135 trucks because suspension parts can fail and wheels could fall off.

The agency says it will determine the size of the problem and how risky it is.